During this time of the year, I'm constantly getting inquiries from prospective brides and grooms who want to hire me to be their Charleston Wedding DJ. Oftentimes the "elephant in the room" is price. While I've certainly published many posts relating to price, it's still always a topic that comes up in conversation. The inpsiration for this blog actually came to me as I was dropping off some items at my neighborhood dry cleaning store. I had been making some small talk with the clerk and told her I had seen another store in a different geographical area offering prices that were significantly lower than what I was being charged. What do you think her response was? "Well, you do get what you pay for." Perhaps that particular store offering the lower prices specialized in "quantity", rather than "quality". After I walked out of the shop, I got in to my truck and immediately began to think about the age old debate of "quality" versus "quantity". As one of the best Charleston Wedding DJs, I started to think how that debate relates to many types of businesses, but especially my DJ company here in Charleston.

Most all of the brides and grooms who select me to be their Charleston Wedding DJ tend to be very much into their music.  What exactly does that mean? It means that music is generally a very important part of their life. Oftentimes (even before I meet them), they have chosen the song that they will use for their first dance. They have (a lot of times) chosen this song shortly after beginning their engagement. Other music aficionados might spend more time choosing their song.  Your first dance is one of the key moments during your wedding reception where the spotlight is on you.  Be sure to choose a song that best exemplifies your love for one another.  Are you in the mood to be serious about your first dance? Maybe you'd like to let loose and goof  off a little bit during your first dance?  As one of the top Charleston wedding DJs, I've posted quite a bit about first dance songs. In this post, we'll break down some of the different styles that Charleston wedding couples have used over the years.

If you do it the right way when you hire the best wedding DJ for your biggest day in Charleston, you should also be getting a top notch MC. There are some misconceptions about DJs and MCs. Some people I've spoke with believe they are actually two separate people, and that they need to hire both. This is not true. If you hire a true professional wedding DJ, you will not only be getting the person who will properly mix your music throughout your day, but also the one who makes your announcements at the right time to make sure the flow goes smoothly. Mixing your music is important, but hiring someone who can adequately handle all your announcements with the utmost professionalism is equally as important. I cannot emphasize it enough that if your DJ / MC does not sound pleasing on the microphone, you and your guests will be in for a potentially agonizing wedding reception.

Here it is another engagement season in one of the most beautiful and romantic cities in the world.  If you don't live in Charleston and have done a few Google searches on "destination weddings", you and your fiance probably have fallen in love with a lot of the beautiful imagery you've seen in some of the blog posts on some of the leading wedding websites.  Charleston, SC is definitely no longer a secret to engaged couples. It's actually become the Number 2 wedding destination in the country. If you anticipate saying "yes" this season, let me give you an advance congratulations! I know you and your fiance are probably to the moon and back in love with each other.  Even if you haven't quite popped the question yet, you probably have envisioned what you'd like the best day of your life to be like. Well, you have come to one of the most expansive and informative blogs that you'll find when it comes to finding the best Charleston wedding DJ for you and your fiance.  Get ready to take some notes or save this post in your favorites. You'll want to come back to it as you weed through your selections as to who you hire to be your wedding DJ.

The wedding DJ / entertainment you decide to hire for your Charleston wedding will single-handedly have the most impact on you and your guests and whether or not you have the time of your lives.  Hiring your Charleston Wedding DJ is so much more than finding the lowest price and best bargain.  If it were just that, I wouldn't have opened my business and carved out my niche as being only one of a few "owner-operated DJs" here in Charleston.  As a matter of fact, I've seen polls on some of the leading wedding websites that show nearly 3/4 of all brides were not happy with the entertainment they chose for their wedding.  They wish they had spent more time researching who their wedding DJ should be. You need to be totally comfortable with who is going to be executing the flow of your evening.  As I put together the second edition of my Complete Guide For Selecting Your Wedding DJ for 2019,  the inspiration for this post came to me and I felt it was important to give some of the recently engaged brides and grooms some questions to ask when they start the search for the best Charleston wedding DJ for them. 

Today's blog post begins with an excerpt of a recent review I had received from one of my clients. "From the moment we met with Mike, we knew he was the DJ for us. After hitting his website and reading through all of his reviews, it was a no-brainer to hire Mike, and he turned out to be the big reason for the huge success of our wedding day in Charleston. From start to finish, Mike was there for us and just an email or text away with answers to any of our questions about the major parts of our wedding ceremony and reception. We weren't worried about a thing when we finally got to our wedding day........."  You know it never gets old to receive reviews like this.  I love taking care of my clients. The review would also go on to explain that in the days and months after this couple booked me that I would become a friend to them and since they were planning their Charleston wedding from a distance that I set them at ease". If you are a bride or groom and are planning a wedding in the near future and are in the hunt for one of the best Charleston wedding DJs, you really need to read on to see what it is you'll be getting if you contract me for your wedding and why booking directly through a small service instead of an agency is one of the best decisions you'll make.

Recently in between weddings and private events, I've been finding myself heading out to the beach to enjoy what has become a rather HOT Fall wedding season here in Charleston. While temperatures in the lower 90s are not totally out of the ordinary during the first week of October, they might be a bit of a downer for those brides coming down to the Holy City expecting some cooler Fall breezes.  Despite being in the thick of the Fall rush with weddings and other private parties, some of my focus has begun to flip calendars over to 2019. It's hard to believe we're only about 6 weeks away from the start of yet another engagement season here in Charleston.

The first dance is one of the times during the reception where the spotlight is solely on the bride and groom. All eyes are focused on the beautiful couples as they dance to their special song. When a bride and groom are planning the music for their wedding reception, this is the one song that they should put some time and extra thought to ensure the song that they have chosen is the most meaningful it can be.  The type of first dance song that you should choose is completely up to you. Some brides and grooms look to choose a song that is lesser known. Some couples may opt for traditional songs from Elvis Presley or Etta James, or even a country song.  Whatever you decide on, remember that music is powerful, and your first dance will be one of those moments that you will forever cherish for the rest of your life. 

 Ever since the beginning of 2014,  I've been an advertiser inside the premier wedding magazine for the modern bride and groom. The more I met with brides and grooms, the more I saw them bring a copy of this beautiful magazine with them to our meetings and consultations.  There are plenty of substitutes and wedding blogs that have popped up over the years, but it's Charleston Weddings Magazine that remains the preeminent source for wedding inspiration. When you pick up your copy of Charleston Weddings Magazine, you'll soon find out it features some of the top wedding vendors in the Charleston, SC area. You'll also find a wide variety of "Real Wedding" stories and venue features that allow brides to get all dreamy from looking at all the very pretty pictures.  As one of the top wedding DJs in the Holy City, it was one of my goals way back when to get a full page ad inside the preeminent wedding magazine of Charleston so that my company could be in front of the eyes of the modern bride.  As it pertains to wedding publications,  Charleston Weddings Magazine is the best for the destination, as well as local bride looking to plan her wedding in one of the world's top cities.

Ever since the inception of Mike Bills Entertainment, it's been my goal to perform for modern brides and grooms at a high level. That performance would begin with the development of a website that is intuitive and friendly, as well as mobile friendly. As an owner-operated DJ service, I do it all. From the marketing to the booking to the actual execution of your wedding day, I will be the wedding DJ at your wedding.  Every single business (especially if you are online) has to have a gauge, a barometer (if you will) of how successful they are. That success needs to be documented in the form of online reviews. Most modern brides and grooms use online reviews as a way to decide as to which wedding vendors they should be hiring for their most important day. If a business owner does not follow up with prior brides and grooms to determine  how their performance was, how do they improve? Enter The Weddingwire Couple's Choice Award.